Non-Profit Internet service provider.

There are many problems with Internet service providers today. They cost a lot, data is often capped, and they can often try to fool you with their contracts and lure you in with starter prices.. Their entire purpose is to make money. Everyone else has no choice to adhere to their standards because all the other ISP's are just as expensive, and there are no other providers to give access.

There is in reality no consumer choice, and internet access is becoming to be much more important as technology grows. Unlike the past everything we do is being hooked up to the net. In the past, mail was sent by the post office, and the post office did everything in their power to get your letter from one place to another. Internet service providers overcharge people for data rates that are inferior. We have the technology to go GBPS with fiber cables, 4G is not really 4G in terms of bandwidth usage. The real 4G was designed to give 1Gigabyte per second per person. Also a SMS data rate costs more than it does to send data and back from the Hubble telescope.

Instead of using all that money to create more infrastructure to speed up the networks, they will resort to methods to cap people bandwidth rates during heavy hours. They do this because infrastructure is expensive.

As people are starting to come together to discuss ideas of GBps internet, it is now a good time to discuss non-profit internet access. There are some non-profit utilities, that charge people only for the services provided. If they charge to much, the person will find a check in their mail to compensate. They use this money to keep the utilities running, and expanding if needed. The same should be for internet access. If there are too much people on the network at one time, then they need to expand the network to hold everybody. They will spend money only on the services provided instead of using it for capital gain.

Dec 30 2011:
I have been looking into this recently. In light of what is becoming of the internet, more government control, I think this time has come, an ISP for the public good. Is there a nonprofit ISP operating anywhere in the U.S. or Canada?

Dec 8 2011:
Im not sure how it is in the US, but in Ireland the internet is slow, not beacse of the ISP, but because the countries connection to the internet (I have 20mbps, which is more like 14mbps). However, times are changing. They have 100mbps in almost all of sweden, and in germany they are going to roll out a 1gbps connection nationwide. I believe capping bandwidth will soon be a thing in the past (though there will be a cap on the upload more so than the download). If the ISP was not for profit, the speed at which it would bring out new speeds would be much slower. I think you need the competition, at least for now.

Dec 5 2011:
Well in order for ISP's to provide GBps bandwith to everyone, I think it would be very expensive development wise. Offering free Internet to everyone is an interesting idea, because the Internet connects people, but I'm not sure how practical it is.